Why house sitting is perfect for remote workers - Marco and Fran’s story

With a passion for pets and an affinity for adventure, it’s safe to say that Marco and Fran, founders of Map the Unknown, have hit the sweet spot when it comes to travel and work. After years traveling full time through ‘van life’, backpacking, hitchhiking and more, the pair have settled on house sitting - what they call perfect for remote workers and digital nomads like themselves. 

With no real home base but rather multiple house sitting ventures under their belt, Marco and Fran have been able to grow their online business while having unforgettable adventures in countries across the globe. Caring for new fluffy friends and staying in cool homes around the world has allowed the pair to travel full time without sacrificing their career goals (or their passion for pets!). So, armed with a wealth of experience, let’s explore their house sitting wisdom, along with their eight reasons why house sitting is perfect for remote workers.

Over the last couple of years, more people are working from home than ever before - something that Marco and Fran decided to use to their advantage.

“Crises are opportunities - we are big believers of that and what we all faced in 2020 was no exception. Because of the pandemic, people and companies moved to a remote working model. The number of people working remotely has tripled since then and it’s likely to continue increasing. In fact, statistics on remote workers reveal that more than 4.7 million people work remotely at least half the time in the United States. 

While remote working has its perks, being stuck at home for long stretches of time can get boring. If you have the freedom to work anywhere, you love traveling and pets, then you’ll love house sitting.”

Before we get into their wealth of wisdom on all things house and pet sitting, let’s hear from Marco and Fran about themselves.

“First, we would like to introduce ourselves. We are Marco from the Philippines and Fran from Argentina. We’ve been traveling the world full time since 2018. We are fully fledged digital nomads - we work remotely and we don’t have a real home base, but thanks to house sitting, we’re able to have multiple homes in different parts of the world filled with the love from beautiful pets. We’ve tried many different types of travel lifestyles: backpacking, couchsurfing, hitchhiking, van life, house sitting, luxury travel, volunteering, etc. and, for us, house sitting became our favorite way to find accommodation (or better say, a home) while traveling around the world for many many reasons.”

While going fully nomadic like Marco and Fran isn’t for everyone, the pair are certain that house sitting can suit people from many walks of life, in different stages of life, too. 

“You don’t have to be a full-time nomad like us to do house sitting. People house sit for many different reasons. Some are active retirees who want to travel at a leisurely pace without the ‘living out of a suitcase’ lifestyle and the expense of hotels or B&Bs. Some are families with kids who want the convenience of a home when they travel. Some are remote workers or digital nomads who want to have a temporary home with a stable internet connection in a different part of the world. Others choose to house sit as an alternative way to travel and some just for the love and company of pets.” 

“For us, house sitting is our way of life. We travel full-time and house sitting gives us a home base where we can have the company of pets, stability to work on our online business, travel to different countries, and still be able to balance work and travel with our personal life. It's just such a great way to travel that we believe more people should know and experience it! We love it so much that we created The Ultimate House Sitting Ebook to help more people get into house sitting. If you have the freedom to travel and work remotely then we highly recommend house sitting - you should definitely give it a try.”

Now without any further ado, here are the pair’s eight reasons why house sitting is the ideal hobby, mini break or even way of life for remote workers…

“1. You can have a home anywhere in the world with all its comfort including a good internet connection. Having a stable place to work and stable internet is key to being able to focus and be productive when working remotely. 

2. You can work remotely from a new neighborhood, state, or province of your own home country. You don’t need to go far and travel internationally to have new and amazing experiences. 

3. House sitting helps you break out of your normal routine so you won’t get bored seeing the same scenery, going to the same coffee shop, or working from the same environment everyday. It’s exciting because you can easily explore something new after (or before) work.

4. House sitting can help spark inspiration and cultivate creativity because you’ll be exposed to different sceneries, culture, languages, and people. It makes your work-from-home days more fun and productive because you’ll learn a lot by exposing yourself to a different environment outside your own comfortable home and neighborhood.” 

“5. You’ll have the company and unconditional love from pets. Most of the house sitting opportunities are with pets so you'll get to take care of them, enjoy their company, and you will never feel alone even if you’re working from home for most of the day. Sometimes you’ll need to take the pets out for a walk which helps you to take some time off from your laptop to move your body and breathe some fresh air. Every time we house sit for homeowners with dogs, we reach our 10K steps and we looove it! 

6. You can live like a local and experience different lifestyles. We've been house sitting in many unexpected and beautiful places such as an oceanfront house in the Caribbean, a house in front of the most famous range of snow-capped mountains in Utah and Colorado, a house with a pool in Thailand, etc. and we always had amazing experiences. 

7. You’ll save lots of money on accommodation. It’s like living your normal life but rent-free in a different part of the world. For us, we’re able to save more than 20K USD every year because of house sitting. 

8. You can even save on car rental! Some house sitting opportunities include a vehicle that you can use to explore, go to the supermarket, or for whatever you or the pets need or want. Once we were house sitting in Utah, taking care of two Huskies and the homeowner even left us some cash for the gas because she wanted to make sure that we could bring the dogs on different hikes. It was the best! We were able to go on walks in nature with them while exploring different parts of Utah. What a beautiful combo!”

“Sharing the love for pets and traveling creates an instant connection between the home owners and the house sitters - that's why most of our hosts from our previous house sits instantly became our friends. You get to be part of this wonderful community of pet and travel lovers. Today, we know that we have many homes and friends around the world waiting to meet again!” 

We don’t blame you if, after that, you’re packing your bags and applying to house sits! To get your adventures started, hear from Marco and Fran about their house sitting Ebook - filled with their expert advice.  

“If you're interested in starting your house sitting journey or even if you’ve been house sitting before and you want to level-up your journey, The Ultimate House Sitting Ebook will help you get started and become an expert in house sitting. In the Ebook, we share all our knowledge and expertise from our years of experience house sitting in different countries. Explore our proven system and techniques to land the perfect house sit and all our lessons learned so that you can avoid our mistakes and have wonderful experiences house sitting around the world. 

Happy house sitting!!!

Much love, 

Fran & Marco 

Founders of Map The Unknown”

Feeling inspired?

Us, too! To find out more about the pair’s experiences around the world, pay them a visit at Map The Unknown and get your house sitting adventure started.